OCR Text |
Show ItJKiNUiNG THE FLYING ' MACHINEDOWN TO EARTH (BY VICTOR LOUGHEED in the February Popular Mechanics Magazine,) l" . , ma,ny years a favorite tonic with U raaglnativc writers has teen tho fir -tiire of aerial navigation, a topic tha"t ?h"t ite?6 e2io1 50d f th th0 " I oAct fslaaVay l faDCy 0Q ! nia? Vd? ffn iB near and hu" 3 fimf L B a ,thInB accomplished, the time has arrived for a chimm-J o' oXtmu$ "Wne to come do nf. i? Q?d H treatcd a what S 2 l8-ho object of a rapidly do-veloplng do-veloplng department of engineering, 1 "rmly fouded upon formulated law! t :?nft f?r Its end th furnishing of a practical world with a new and wonderful vehicle. This vehicle-the aeroplane alono constitutes the proper pro-per basis for any present speculation, wherefore It will be attempted to de-fin6 de-fin6 in this article only the reason-( reason-( able technical development which the ; aeroplane Is in prospect of undergo-: undergo-: lng, in its ovolution from its present forms to tho typos that aro Impend- ing m tho very near future And If In this treatment of the sub-y sub-y ject short shrift bo given to tho nlcc- lyrrlvoted, boller-plato dirigibles, with passengers and windows in tho gas chambers, and to tho ncatly-foncci , promenade decks of Brobdiugnaglan i aeroplanes, which for long have run ; riot from the pens of reckless artists, perhaps what Is lost In glamor will ;' be gained In accuracy. i To bogln with, largely because of 1 the automobile having placed ready to hand the necessary high-grade materials ma-terials and light-weight motors, the 1 practical aeroplano Is coming faster , than any mechanical development In th hiatorr of eniriueerinc:. It renulrorl 15 years to Improve tho automobllo i from tho first machines that really ? ran to tho present degree of motor' car perfection. For a corresponding measure of aeroplane improvement it ; will hardly require five years, of which thice have already passed though It is by no means to bo assumed that at , the end of tho f!e-yoar period the aeroplano will have undergone all the Improvement for which it Is destined. It is the history of all engineering progress that practically every great advance In man's conquest of tho forces of nature has come as a doyal-? doyal-? opment, rather than as a full-fledged, perfected Invention. The most modern mod-ern locomotives bear many resemblances resem-blances to the very first of their kind. The modern steam vessel differs chiefly chief-ly In refinement of details and In- crease In size from Its prototypes of j ears ago, and a particularly Impressive Impres-sive example is the automobile, In al-f al-f most every detail of which, In Its most modern forms, there aro to be traced . featuroe closely similar to those of the automobiles of years ago, built I when the self-propelled vehicle was commonly regarded as the crazy experiment ex-periment of a few hopeless cranks. The conclusion forces Itself that tho time has passed for the freakish in flying machine design. Even such interesting curiosities as the helicopter helicop-ter and the ornlthopter, and most ol all, the dirigible balloon, are at this moment considered quite out of court by tho men best qualified to render authoritative opinions concerning them Henceforth the flying machine can only develop, rather than undergo revolutlonarv changes. This Improvement In efficiency undoubtedly un-doubtedly will como In conjunction wlth a great Increase, rather than decrease, de-crease, in 6peed. With motors and materials now available, and with no further Improvement In these elements, ele-ments, It Is reasonably to be expected that the aeroplano of the next fow jears will develop capacities for speed far in excess of tho fastest going now obtained by any typo of vehicle Moreover, More-over, the average speeds of aeroplanes will be the same as their maximum speeds, because, as In the caso ol water wa-ter vehicles, but unlike land vehicles, the course Is always uniform Greater reliability and much lower I costs will be another result of Im- ' proving the aeroplane to the point u where It will fly with much loss pow- er than Is now demanded. Cheap, and I 1 for their power comparatively I heay motors can be used, and thero I Is the lesson of the automobile to I provo conclusively that such motors I can bo manufactured in quantity for I very low costs, without sacrifice of I durability and reliability. BH H The first uses to which aeroplanes H arc llkeh to bo placed will have for r their object tho carr-lne of mall and , express matter at high speed. It Is likely that not until those applications applica-tions iavo been considerably developedprobably devel-opedprobably In- conjunction -with considerable utilization for military" purposes and possibly a wide oxplol-taflo'n oxplol-taflo'n as a new arid Interesting means of advertising will passengors commence com-mence to bo carried with the safety and reliability that sooner or later must come, as the aeroplano emerges from tho mists of doubt Into tho realms of tho practical. |